An Introduction To Wireless Technologies - Unibz

An Introduction to Wireless Technologies Part 2 F. Ricci 2010/2011

Content Multiplexing Medium access control Medium access control (MAC): FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access TDMA Time Division Multiple Access CDMA Code Division Multiple Access Cellular systems GSM architecture GSM MAC Sequence diagram of a phone call GPRS Most of the slides of this lecture come from prof. Jochen Schiller’s didactical material for the book “Mobile Communications”, Addison Wesley, 2003.

Multiplexing Multiplexing describes how several users can share a medium with minimum or no interference Example: lanes in a highway Cars in different lanes (space division multiplexing) Cars in a line but at different times (time division multiplexing) Multiplexing in 4 dimensions space (s) time (t) frequency (f) code (c) Important: guard spaces needed!

Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) Different channels for communications are allocated to different spaces With this space only three channels can be separated Example 1: each subscriber of an analogue telephone system is given a different wire Example 2: FM stations can transmit only in a certain region SDM is the simplest and inefficient Usually associated with other methods. channels ki k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6 c t c t s1 f f s2 c t s3 f

Frequency Multiplex Separation of the whole spectrum into smaller frequency bands A channel gets a certain band of the spectrum for the whole time Advantages: no dynamic coordination necessary k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6 works also for analog signals c Disadvantages: waste of bandwidth if the traffic is distributed unevenly inflexible guard spaces t f

Time Multiplex A channel gets the whole spectrum for a certain amount of time Advantages: only one carrier in the medium at any time throughput high even for many users k1 k2 k3 k5 k6 c t k4 Disadvantages: Precise synchronization necessary (clocks) Guard space f

Time and Frequency Multiplex Combination of both methods A channel gets a certain frequency band for a certain amount of time k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6 c f t Advantages: better protection against tapping protection against frequency selective interference higher data rates compared to code multiplex but: precise coordination required

Code Multiplex Each channel has a unique code: a vector of 1 and -1, k1 These vectors are orthogonal and have a large autocorrelation (norm of the vector) All channels use the same spectrum at the same time Advantages: bandwidth efficient no coordination and synchronization necessary good protection against interference and tapping Disadvantages: lower user data rates more complex signal regeneration. k2 k3 k4 k5 k6 c f t

Medium Access Control Medium access control comprises all mechanisms that regulate user access to a medium using SDM, TDM, FDM or CDM MAC is a sort of traffic regulation (as traffic lights in road traffic) MAC belongs to layer 2 (OSI Model): data link control layer The most important methods are TDM TDM is convenient because the systems stay tuned on a given frequency and the us the frequency only for a certain amount of time (GSM)

Motivation for a Medium Access Control Can we apply media access methods from fixed networks? Example CSMA/CD Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection send as soon as the medium is free, listen into the medium if a collision occurs (original method in IEEE 802.3) Problems in wireless networks signal strength decreases proportional to the square of the distance the sender would apply CS and CD, but the collisions happen at the receiver it might be the case that a sender cannot “hear” the collision, i.e., CD does not work furthermore, CS might not work if, e.g., a terminal is “hidden” (too far to be heard).

Motivation - hidden and exposed terminals Hidden terminals: the medium seems free and collisions are not detected A sends to B, C cannot receive A C wants to send to B, C senses a “free” medium (CS fails) and transmits collision at B, C cannot receive the collision (CD fails) A is “hidden” for C (and C is hidden for A) A B C D Exposed terminals: the medium seems in use but this will not cause a collision B sends to A, C wants to send to D C has to wait, CS signals a medium in use but D is outside the radio range of B, therefore waiting is not necessary C is “exposed” to B

Motivation - near and far terminals Terminals A and B send, C receives signal strength decreases proportional to the square of the distance the signal of terminal B therefore drowns out A’s signal C cannot receive A A B C If C for example was an arbiter for sending rights, terminal B would drown out terminal A already on the physical layer

Access methods SDMA/FDMA/TDMA SDMA (Space Division Multiple Access) segment space into sectors, use directed antennas cell structure FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access) assign a certain frequency to a transmission channel between a sender and a receiver permanent (e.g., radio broadcast), slow hopping (e.g., GSM), fast hopping (FHSS, Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum) TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) assign the fixed sending frequency to a transmission channel between a sender and a receiver for a certain amount of time.

Cell structure segmentation of the area into cells possible radio coverage of the cell cell idealized shape of the cell use of several carrier frequencies not the same frequency in adjoining cells cell sizes vary from some 100 m up to 35 km depending on user density, geography, transceiver power etc. hexagonal shape of cells is idealized (cells overlap, shapes depend on geography) if a mobile user changes cells then handover of the connection to the neighbor cell.

Cell structure Implements space division multiplex: base station covers a certain transmission area (cell) Mobile stations communicate only via the base station Advantages of cell structure: higher capacity, higher number of users less transmission power needed more robust, decentralized base station deals with interference, transmission area etc. locally Problems: fixed network needed for the base stations handover (changing from one cell to another) necessary interference with other cells requires frequency planning

Fixed TDM - example DECT Only one frequency is used Each partner must be able to access the medium for a time slot at the right moment The base station uses 12 slots for downlink and the mobile uses other 12 slots for uplink Up to 12 different mobile stations can use the same frequency Every 10ms 417µs*24 a mobile station can access the medium Very inefficient for bursty data This wastes a lot of bandwidth 417 µs 1 2 3 downlink 11 12 1 2 3 uplink 11 12 t

DECT properties Audio codec: G.726 Net bit rate: 32 kbit/s Frequency: 1880 MHz–1900 MHz in Europe, 1900 MHz-1920 MHz in China, 1910 MHz-1930 MHz in Latin America and 1920 MHz–1930 MHz in the US and Canada Carriers: 10 (1,728 kHz spacing) in Europe, 5 (1,728 kHz spacing) in the US Time slots: 2 x 12 (up and down stream) Channel allocation: dynamic Average transmission power: 10 mW (250 mW peak) in Europe, 4 mW (100 mW peak) in the US.

Aloha (“hello” in Hawaiian language) Mechanism: random, distributed (no central arbiter), time-multiplex If a collision occurs the transmitted data is destroyed – the problem is resolved at a higher level (data is retransmitted) Works fine for a light load and if the data packets arrive in a random way collision sender A sender B sender C t

Slotted Aloha All senders are synchronized, transmission can only start at the beginning of a time slot Still access is not coordinated The throughput pass from 18% (Aloha) to 36% It is used for the initial connection set up in GSM collision sender A sender B sender C t

FDD/FDMA - example GSM FDD Frequency division duplex Both partners have to know the frequency in advance The base station allocates the frequencies downlink 960 MHz 960.2 MHz 935.2 MHz f 124 200 kHz 1 20 MHz 915 MHz 124 uplink 890.2 MHz 1 t full-duplex means that you use one frequency for talking and a second, separate frequency for listening. Both people on the call can talk at once. CB radios are half-duplex devices – only one can talk

GSM - TDMA/FDMA 935-960 MHz 124 channels (200 kHz) downlink 890-915 MHz 124 channels (200 kHz) uplink higher GSM frame structures time GSM TDMA frame 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 4.615 ms GSM time-slot (normal burst) guard space tail 3 bits user data S Training S user data 57 bits 1 26 bits 1 57 bits guard tail space 3 546.5 µs 577 µs 148 bits in 546.5µs 156.25 bits in 577 µs

Radio interface Each slot represents a physical channel: lasts for 577µs and contains (at most, filling the guard space) 156.25 bits, but is repeated every 4.615 ms Each physical channel can transmit 156.25/4.615ms 33.8Kbit/s Each radio carrier can transmit 33.8Kbit/s * 8 270Kbit/s In order to have more flexibility and allow channels to have a required bandwidth (e.g. less than 33.8Kbit/s) there are Logical Channels A logical channel can take less than a slot every eight slots.

Logical Channels The green sequence uses all the capacity of the physical channel The red sequence define a logical channel that uses half the capacity of a physical channel, only 16.9Kbit/s time

Traffic channel and control channels Traffic channels (TCH) are used to transmit user data Full-rate TCH (22.8Kbit/s) and half-rate TCH (11.4Kbit/ s) are the basic categories The codecs used for voice uses 13Kbit/s or 5.6Kbit/s Data can be transmitted with 4.8, 9.6 or 14.4Kbit/s Control channels (CCH) are used to control medium access, allocation of traffic, or mobility management Broadcast control channels: used by BTS (Base Transceiver Station) to signal info to all MS (e.g. cell identifier) Common control channel: for connection set up between MS and BS (paging to MS or MS try connection with BS) Dedicated control channel: for registration, authentication, exchange information about quality of signal.

Access method CDMA CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) all terminals send on the same frequency probably at the same time and can use the whole bandwidth of the transmission channel each sender has a unique random code, the sender XORs the signal with this random code the receiver can “tune” into this signal if it knows the pseudo random code, tuning is done via a correlation function.

Scalar (or “inner”) product a (1, 0, 1, 1), b (1, -1, -1, 0) a·b 1*1 0*(-1) 1*(-1) 1*0 0 a·(b c) a·b a·c a·(kb) k a·b (k is a scalar) a 2 a·a If a and b are orthogonal, i.e., a·b 0, then a ·(ka hb) k a 2 b ·(ka hb) h b 2 See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-division multiple access

CDMA in theory Sender A Sends Ad 1, key Ak 010011 Assign in Ad and Ak: „0“ to -1, and „1“ to 1 Sending signal As Ad * Ak (-1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1) ('*' XOR) Sender B Sends Bd 0, key Bk 110101 Assign in Bd and Bk: „0“ to -1, and „1“ to 1 Sending signal Bs Bd * Bk (-1, -1, 1, -1, 1, -1) Both signals superimpose in space interference neglected (noise etc.) – and assuming that signals arrive with the same strength As Bs (-2, 0, 0, -2, 2, 0) Receiver wants to receive signal from sender A and B Apply key Ak bitwise (inner product) Ae (-2, 0, 0, -2, 2, 0) Ak 2 0 0 2 2 0 6 result greater than 0, therefore, original bit was „1“ Receiving B Be (-2, 0, 0, -2, 2, 0) Bk -2 0 0 - 2 - 2 0 -6, i.e. „0“

Interpretation Ak 010011 is represented with the chip code (-1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1) VA Bk 110101 is represented with the chip code (1, 1, -1, 1,- 1, 1) VB VA ·VB 0, i.e., they are orthogonal If A want to transmit h and B want to transmit k (h and k are either 1 or -1, encoding a '1' or a '0') Then h VA and k VB are transmitted and h VA k VB is received Decoding message sent by A: VA ·(h VA k VB) h VA 2 Decoding message sent by B: VB ·(h VA k VB) k Vb 2 Hence you can understand that A sent a h and B sent k.